#9: Coherence as a source of power

When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to lift the entire system to a higher order

This knowledge doesn't come from a spiritual leader but from a physical chemist and Nobel prize winner Ilya Prigogine. What I love about this quote is that it manages to translate the inherent wisdom of nature (e.g. in the form of cells) and to transfer that knowledge into navigating life in general.

The year 2023 was announced as the hottest on record. The year 2024 is going to be the biggest election year in history. In the turbulent times that we live in of multiple crises, wars, and climate threats - what is the smallest island of coherence that we can tune in? I believe it is ourselves, our relationships, our closest circles.

Instead of hoping to transform our most challenging relationships, maybe let's take a step back and focus on what is already working. From whichever island of coherence we decide to choose we can build further coherence. At least that's my plan and in this newsletter, I will tell you my first moves of this year and how I plan to seed and further develop coherence around me <3

"Substack is like revamped blogging"

Firstly, I've decided to move weekly writings to my substack. There I will share more inspiration for transformation - current courses, books, podcasts, that I am engaging with as well as personal stories. This newsletter here I will keep for monthly updates as this one. Follow me here on substack if you are interested! Thank you <3

Now onto the January #updates.

Collaboration with Plant-for-the-Planet Ghana

As part of my Master's in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) programme, we are collaborating with Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation Ghana. Why? Well MSLS is a very practical programme. (FYI: Also the deadline to apply for 2024/2025 class is on the 15th of January!)

In MSLS we immediately put into practice what we have learned. And mostly we are learning how to lead strategic planning towards sustainability. So since November together with my team of 5 in total, we have been helping to design a strategic action plan for the Plant for the Planet Ghana. They have a regenerative cause of planting 10 million trees and at the moment they have planted 40,000 trees. But most importantly - they want to engage the local community and better life overall for all living beings.

Since we started we have engaged them in a process of strategic planning – analysing the current reality of the organization, planning together for a sustainable vision, brainstorming ideas on how to achieve that vision and then prioritizing the most adequate next steps for the organization. Later this month we will finalize the project and I will share with you the outcomes!

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

This new piece of EU legislation requires all large companies and listed SMEs to publish regular reports on their environmental and social impact activities. The aim is to help investors, consumers and policymakers to evaluate large companies’ non-financial performance. So this is big news!

Compliance is happening soon – companies must submit their report aligning with the CSRD on the 1st of January 2025 for the financial year of 2024. We know that this process will be challenging for companies and therefore want to focus our research on helping companies not only to comply with CSRD but to better understand the sustainability challenge and how they can play a (better) role in it.

Why am I sharing all of this? Well, first of all, it is an important effort of the EU to make the economy more sustainable and I think this is worth sharing with everyone. However, this is also the topic of my thesis research. For the next months until June, together with 3 of my colleagues, we will investigate how CSRD will help companies move towards strategic sustainability. Our idea so far is to prototype a process that will support companies to go through the process.

If you work for a company that would like to test our prototype or learn more about CSRD – contact me! If you are a consultant who works on the topic – great – we would like to interview you and understand more about your perception of the directive and its implementation. Either way – message me if this topic speaks to you!

Last but not least …. FLOW

January will be a lot about flow - literally!

Back in November I finally played for the first time this game that I’ve familiarized myself with since 2019 when I was a Bluebook trainee in DG EAC in the European Commission . It’s a game about questions. You come to play the game prepared with a specific question about your personal or professional life and then .. play the game. The game has no winners or losers. We play it all together and we exchange wisdom with each other. That’s all I would say for now. Very soon I’m planning to become a host and a practitioner of the game and I would love to host a game for you – if you are interested you can sign up through this form here.

Wish you all a flowing January and see you in February!

Until then - follow me on substack and let's stay connected in coherence!

xx,

Kris